SEATTLE – An Alberta-based truck driver whose rig hit a bridge in Washington state spoke with his wife seconds after the bridge collapsed.
The Interstate 5 bridge collapsed into the Skagit River north of Seattle on Thursday evening.
A memo from the Washington State Patrol notes four vehicles were involved in the incident, including the semi that struck the bridge.
The Kenworth semi was towing a drilling rig and was on its way to Vancouver, Washington when the upper corner of the rig caught the superstructure of the bridge, according to police.
Sgt. Kirk Rudeen says the collision appears to have led to the collapse of the span that took two vehicles with it.
The driver of the semi is listed as 42-year-old William D. Scott of Spruce Grove, Alberta – an employee of Mullen Trucking, south of Calgary.
The driver’s wife, Cynthia Scott, says she spoke to her husband just seconds after he saw the interstate bridge fall into a river in his rear-view mirror.
She says he was taking all the necessary precautions, adding all of the needed permits were in place and a special vehicle called a pole car had travelled the route beforehand to make sure the load would fit.
Cynthia Scott says there was a small ding in one of the front corners of the load and she wonders if the bridge was already falling apart as the truck was going across.
“For reasons unknown at this point in time the semi struck the overhead of the bridge causing the collapse,” Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste told an overnight news conference.
The driver was not injured in the crash and remained on scene, according to the memo.
Ed Scherbinski, the VP of Operations of Mullen Trucking LP, said the company had the proper permits to travel that route, and applied to the state to move an oil drilling rig part from point A to point B.
The company took bridge measurements, and thought the truck was in the clearance.
They are investigating why it happened, and Scherbinski said the driver is also under investigation by the company.
He said they have had no problems with the driver before.
Two other vehicles ended up in the water and three people were rescued.
No one was seriously hurt in the collapse, which occurred just before 7 p.m. north of Mount Vernon, about halfway between the Canadian border and Seattle.
The bridge is used by 77,000 drivers every day.
— with files from Associated Press and the Canadian Press
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